A crescent moon over the Capitol. Photo: Brett Davis
House Science Chair Frank Lucas is out with new bipartisan legislation to research a new wave of geothermal power systems.
Why it matters: It adds to the wave of interest on the Hill in geothermal that could juice the private sector cash flowing into the low-carbon technology.
Zoom in: Lucas' bill, introduced last week with Rep. Andrea Salinas, would create a new DOE program to research and test "supercritical" geothermal tech.
- These systems seek to inject water deep underground and use the heat of the Earth to generate power.
- Lucas' committee will mark up the legislation on Thursday.
Between the lines: There are already companies experimenting with supercritical systems.
- Quaise Energy, for instance, wants to use a new drilling technology to tap into super-hot rocks miles beneath the Earth's surface.
- Geothermal, generally, is an old technology, but Quaise is part of a new group of companies trying to find unconventional ways to tap into the Earth's heat and generate climate-friendly baseload power.
Yes, but: Supercritical success is likely far in the future, and it's going to take quite a bit of R&D to make it a cost-effective reality.
- "Economic production of supercritical resources will require the development of entirely new classes of drilling technologies and methods," DOE said in a 2019 report.
